May 28, 2005
Goal 5 – An Ongoing Program
Once the Arts Education Census, the ARMS Protocol, and the New Jersey Arts Education Research Center have been completed a key element of this campaign will be the ongoing maintenance and scheduled updates of the data. By being able to compare information developed over time to the baseline data from the census, trends will be easily identifiable and the policy implications of education reform efforts on the arts would then be able to be judged against facts and not hypotheses.
Posted by musicforall at 2:14 PM
Goal 4 – A National Model
As documented in the report The Arts and Education: New Opportunities for Research (Arts Education Partnership 2004) there is no model now available documenting the status, condition or financing of arts education in any meaningful way. This project will be developed in such a way as to maximize the ability to use this Census model and the ARMS protocol in other states with the goal being to eventually link state data together as it becomes available to create a national database of arts education information that is comparable between schools, districts, communities and states. The modular design of the ARMS protocol will enable communities to utilize the same analytical power to conduct district or region wide Arts Education Census projects, even in areas where the state may not be involved. It is the flexibility in design that holds the promise for use in other states and communities as a national model and potentially, the standard.
Posted by musicforall at 2:13 PM
Goal 3– Create New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center.
The combined Arts Education Census and the ARMS Protocol for manipulating the data will be made public through the creation of the New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center. This would consist of a web-based center to allow broad-based access to AEC data and the ARMS Protocol in a format that will allow for individual research, comparative analysis, and a wide range of queries comparing arts education data with various other data points. This type of analysis has been historically impossible.
Posted by musicforall at 2:13 PM
Goal 2 – Connect Survey Results with Additional Information.
Building on the model developed by the original Mapping Project, the survey data will be joined with additional databases to provide a more comprehensive view of each school, district, region, and the state. Connections will be made with several databases (modules) to provide greater context to the survey results including: The NJ Department of Education School Codes, New Jersey Department of Education Principal Database, The NJDOE Superintendent Database, NJDOE School Report Card Database, Municipal Databases, the 2000 US Department of Labor Census Statistics and the New Jersey Non-Profit Arts Education Survey.
This complete set of databases described and the software developed to manage, analyze, and make accessible will comprise the Arts-Ed Research Management System (ARMS Protocol). Using the ARMS Protocol, these joined databases will be able to query the school survey results in relationship to the census data and the NJ Report Card data, which provides information on length of day, student enrollment, languages spoken at home, test scores, per pupil expenditures, etc. By using a flexible, modular format we will be able to add or delete various data groups to provide additional insights and points of comparison available in the future. This is the fundamental point of differentiation for this project. The completed ARMS protocol will then be joined with a Graphical Information System (GIS) program to allow the mapping of various data points and query results for visual analysis. In addition, new indices, scores, and comparative measure may be developed through the combined data in the protocol.
Posted by musicforall at 2:04 PM
Goal 1 – Statewide Arts Education Survey
Building on the survey information from the original Mapping Project, a new state-wide survey of every school will be developed and implemented by the New Jersey Department of Education, in conjunction with the project partners, to measure arts education programs and their impact throughout the state. The project will be modeled after the successful World Languages survey which had 100% participation by the public schools. Included in the survey will be qualitative measures (arts education policies, instruction, etc.) as well as quantitative measures (student participation, enrollment, teachers, certification, etc). This will provide the community with the first complete “snapshot” of the actual level of access, equity and quality of programs between schools and communities across the state.
The 1996-98 Mapping Project survey instruments will be used as a point of departure to ensure prior data gathered will be able to be compared to the new information generated by the Census. In addition, a review of survey instruments from other states will be conducted to assist in the creation of the best possible instrument for this project and to help frame questions usable across state lines.
The survey will be conducted from April 3 through April 30, 2006 with all 2408 schools across the 619 school districts in the state of New Jersey. The estimated population covered by the survey is 1.3 million students. In addition, a separate survey of non-profit arts education providers will provide information regarding the use of these services inside the school setting and the specific schools engaging these services.
Posted by musicforall at 2:04 PM | Comments (1)
Objectives
The Objectives of the New Jersey Arts Education Census are:
1. Implement Statewide Arts Education Survey - Coordinate the creation and implementation of a survey of all schools in New Jersey to gather qualitative and quantitative data regarding arts education. Analyze the survey results and prepare a report to the field regarding the survey findings
2. Connect Survey Results with Additional Information. Economic, demographic, census, report card and municipal data as well as existing survey data from the 1998 Mapping Project will be linked to make more in-depth analysis possible.
3. Create New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center. This “center without walls” would use emerging technology to connect the completed Arts Education Census data creating an online analysis and resource center. This web-based interface will allow for broad-based inquiry and visual analysis. GIS will be utilized to allow for the visual analysis of the information. Once completed, this center would serve as a hub for related policy and practices impacting arts education, including, the Arts Education Census data.
4. A National Model. Create a national model to be replicated in other states with the goal of linking state data to create a national database of comparable information between schools, districts, communities and states.
5. Ongoing Program. Work with partners to create a strategy to collect information on an annual and/or reoccurring schedule to monitor implementation.
Posted by musicforall at 2:02 PM
The Plan
To address the very issues raised by the Arts Education Partnership, the Music for All Foundation (MFA), working in partnership with the NJ State Council on the Arts (NJSCA, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and building on the previous body of work developed through the Mapping Project, carried out by the NJSCA from 1996-98, proposes the creation of the 2006 Arts Education Census Project and the New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center.
The Arts Education Census Project proposes to gather, evaluate and disseminate qualitative and quantitative data regarding arts education in the state of New Jersey. This project is designed to build on the body of work created by the earlier Mapping Project with the goal of documenting arts education in every school in the state, combining the findings with other information to create a 360 degree view of arts education, broadly disseminating the results of the survey through new and emerging technologies, creating a model that may be deployed in other states and developing an ongoing system to update and maintain the Arts Education Census program into the future.
Posted by musicforall at 2:01 PM
The Rationale
Introduction
Federal and state laws and policies have put increased pressure on public education to hold schools accountable for student performance in curricular areas. This has not been matched, however, by government efforts to collect data that would permit analysis of the resources for, and impact of, those policies. Arts education, generally believed to be a curricular area particularly susceptible to policy changes and reallocations of resources, is a case in point. Reliable information is unavailable about student access to arts instruction, about the current and predicted availability of qualified teachers, and about student performance.
It is often asserted that arts education programs are subject to budget cuts or elimination during times of economic downturn, and when policy changes require schools to focus on specific programs or needs. Many believe that schools in urban and rural areas are likely to be hit harder during these times, and that the students in these schools lose access to arts programs more quickly than do their suburban counterparts. Unfortunately, there is no empirical data at the national level, nor consistently at state and local levels, to support or refute these hypotheses.
To move the discussion from anecdote to evidence will take rigorous and regular empirical research on funding levels for arts education in schools. The research would establish spending patterns over time for arts education, providing the basis for analyses of growth and decline relative to other school expenditures at times of policy change and relative to general economic conditions. Such research would have a number of benefits for policymakers and educators alike. For example, analyses based on empirical data would help better assess the financial impact on arts education of proposed policy changes, and would help weigh the implications before their adoption or implementation, clarifying both the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions. Of particular importance, such analyses could monitor the distribution of financial resources and program impacts for general and special populations of students in various school settings and geographic regions. These analyses would provide guidance on how to insure equitable access to arts education for all students.
Federal government support is essential for comprehensive and regular collection, aggregation, and reporting of national arts education data. Designs, systems, and resources for similar efforts at the state and local level also are badly needed. Research on arts education is seriously hampered by the absence of these efforts.
The Arts and Education: New Opportunities for Research
Arts Education Partnership 2004
Posted by musicforall at 1:59 PM